FOXSports.com’s Ken Rosenthal says the deal is done and that the A’s will get both Jeff Samardzija and Jason Hammel, giving up top shortstop prospect Addison Russell in return. He adds that other players and teams may be involved.

11:00 p.m. EDT update: the deal is offical. Along with Russell, the Cubs will get outfield prospect Billy McKinney and right-hander Dan Straily.

Straily will presumably fill one of the vacancies in the Cubs rotation. Veteran Japanese hurler Tsuyoshi Wada could get the other one. Russell and McKinney won’t be factors in the short term, but they further boost a system that’s already loaded offensively.

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Baseball’s best team is aiming to make a preemptive strike, according to FOXSports.com’s Ken Rosenthal. The A’s and Cubs are talking about a deal that could send Jeff Samardzija, Jason Hammel or perhaps both to Oakland.

Both Rosenthal and CBS Sports.com’s Jon Heyman are reporting that top prospect Addison Russell is being discussed. Russell, a plus defensive shortstop with definite All-Star potential, is Oakland’s top prospect and one of the five or 10 best in the game.

For that reason, it’s hard to imagine the A’s giving Russell up without getting an ace in return, especially with the Rays’ David Price, the Phillies’ Cole Hamels and Cliff Lee and the Red Sox’s Jon Lester all potentially becoming available later this month. Russell should be a top target of any of those teams should they choose to deal.

Meanwhile, the Cubs were thought to be more focused on landing young pitching. They already possess another one of the game’s four elite shortstop prospects in Javier Baez (the other two being Houston’s Carlos Correa and Cleveland’s Francisco Lindor), plus a nifty incumbent in Starlin Castro. If they have the chance to get Russell, they should jump and then worry about the fit later. Russell is a better defensive shortstop than Baez and would be the more likely of the two to stay at the position.

Meanwhile, the A’s aren’t exactly suffering with their current crew. Third starter Jesse Chavez has a 3.23 ERA, and fourth starter Tommy Milone shut out the Blue Jays for six innings today to lower his ERA to 3.55. Fifth starter Drew Pomeranz is on the DL, but Brad Mills has looked adequate filling in for him, and Dan Straily is still kicking in Triple-A if needed.

Straily, in fact, would seem to be an obvious part of a Samardzija or Hammel trade, what with the Cubs’ penchant for taking on young, underachieving major league starters. It’s a strategy that has netted them Jake Arrieta and Travis Wood. Pomeranz might also fit that bill.

Samardzija, for what it’s worth, has one year left of arbitration in 2015 and should make somewhere in the $10 million neighborhood next year. Hammel will be a free agent at season’s end.

So, we’ll see what this all comes to. The thinking here is that since the A’s are most likely going to the postseason regardless, it’s not worth sacrificing Russell for a non-ace (and maybe not even for an ace). Samardzija and Hammel have had excellent seasons, with both sporting sub-3.00 ERAs and striking out 8.5 batters per nine innings in the NL, but neither will be any kind of sure thing headed into the postseason. That’s particularly true of Hammel, who is on pace to easily eclipse his previous career high of 177 2/3 innings.

Baez, Alcantara, and Castro in place already. No real ace pitching prospects to speak of. And they might trade BOTH of their best pitchers / trade chips in a deal built around a SS? I feel compelled to point out that Theo has never built a team before. Not like this. He took over a Boston team that won 94 games. And Jed Hoyer built a team that stinks.

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Yes. They traded both of their best pitchers for the top 2 oakland prospects. That’s a good thing. This team isn’t ready to contend. Did you want them to hold on to them so they can shoot for .500 next year or would you rather they have a potential franchise everyday player for 10 years?

This one seemed to catch most of us off guard. I’m not sure which team benefits. I’ve already read that fans from each team are critical of the trade. There’s no doubt that this trade will be interesting to see it play out and will it help the A’s go to the WS?

I can see the logic to it. You’ll probably never get a prospect as good as Russell without giving up both Samardzija and Hammel in the same deal. So you might as well roll the dice on one of the best prospects in the game, rather than trading for a bunch of B and C-level guys whose ceilings are much lower.

Russell is a 20 yr old studly SS prospect that the team will have control of for 7 MLB seasons.

Samardzija is going to the highest bidder in 1.5 years. Hammels is a FA at the end of the year.

Russell by himself is fantastic return for those assets, neither of which would have been Cubs when the Cubs will be competitive.

For quite some time now the Cubs strategy has obviously been to hoard as much offensive talent as they could and then to buy the pitching (or trade surplus offensive players for it). Once they develop, position players are more likely to be healthy and productive for many years without catastrophic injury. They seem to be relying on production at the plate an in the field and will worry about putting together the pitching later.

A’s fan & I’m not thrilled with this deal. This is Oakland going for it deal.

Russell IMO is to good to give up for 2 middle of the road pitchers having career yrs. One being on the verge of FA and they other one with his foot out the door. Chicago will be reaping the benefit of this deal for yrs to come.

McKinney is Yrs away, so who know what will happen with him. Straily appears to be their equal. Russell while still a prospect has provided no reason to believe he will not be a player in the majors.

Basing it off his 2013 numbers & it is why I said appears. Samardzija is far from an “Ace” unless one expects him to improve, but that will be with another team. He is already stated he is money hungry and will chase the largest deal ( No surprise ) He is a below avg to avg 3 or 4 starter. Not worth the price. If Oakland was going to give up such a top prospect then they should have gotten at least a solid No. 2.

I’m a Beane fan, but not of this deal. Seems to me he jumped the gun at the fact he could land two pitchers even two that have been mediocre over their career.

To summarize, the Cubs turned the 4th pick in the draft and two of the top five available starting pitchers into Kyle Schwarber and yet another SS. Not a pitcher to be seen. What on Earth are they doing? It’s all about pitching.

It’s all about pitching? Then why did the Phillies fail to win a WS with Halladay, Hamels, Lee, Oswalt and Blanton? Halladay Hamels and Lee were all in the Cy Young top 5 that year. If 3 of your 5 guys are in the Cy Young conversation, and Oswalt was filthy for a stretch that year also, they win 102 games and fail to even GET to the WS. You need to be able to score runs also.

Actually it’ll probably be…..Baez 2B, Russell SS, Castro 3B (has frame to bulk up more and hit for more power as he has started too this year), Bryant LF, Alcantara CF

chill1184 - Jul 4, 2014 at 11:07 PM

Billy Beane is sick of his seeing his team with first round exits in the playoffs this was a ballsy trade. This also takes a big pitcher off the market so the question now is; Who empties their farm for Price?

Seeing this trade happen, and if they can sign him to an extension before the trade, what’s to stop the Cubs from dealing away Baez or Alcantara for Price? When you have the highly-touted prospects overflowing your farm system, you can afford to sweeten a deal for some MLB-proven talent.

I hope I’m wrong but I just don’t see how this deal makes sense unless there are other players not being reported. Pitching was our only glaring weakness & we traded are two best for a ss & of. I get that they are both good prospects but what are they going to do about pitching

Well, they can always make loud noises to distract the opposing batters, I guess. It’s worked just fine for the last 103 years.

This was a terrific move by the As. I imagine my sunset side pal APBA Guy slurping a cup of Blue Bottle and smiling contentedly. I also imagine Samar…Samar…yeah, him….and Hammel must be beside themselves with happiness and relief. True, they’ll be trading Giordano’s Pizza for Yoshi’s, but just wait till the see their new locker room!

Honestly, I don’t care if Samardzija and Hammel are happy to leave the Cubs. I think the Cubs got the steal in this deal, because they have more players they can control longer, and Oakland got a guy who’ll be leaving for the money after next season plus a guy whose contract ends at the end of this season.

The Cubs have a stacked farm system. They can still trade away some of that for pitching if needed — and it doesn’t have to be prospects, either.

chinahand11 - Jul 5, 2014 at 1:23 AM

Nice sportsfan18. I remember all those guys too. Watching a game where Cardenal got heckled, some guy bellowing Carden-ALLLLL between pitches. My mom and I laughed during Jose’s at bats. “There he goes again.” Loved Manny Trillo and Madlock. Great glove and great bat.

Old Gator - Jul 5, 2014 at 1:21 PM

@derklempner – if you don’ t think Beane took all of that into consideration, you haven’t been paying attention to Beane for the last decade and a half or so. Here in Macondo, we’ve watched a Bataan death march of EYPs gathered up in fire sale after fire sale of solid major league talent flare up, flame out, and disappear orffa the map as if they had been squeezed into a parallel universe like so many watermelon seeds. Yes, it’s a good thing to have great prospects but another thing to know how to mix them with proven talent and VETERAN PRESENCE and sculpt a championship team. It’s a thin line that divides Madam Curie from cold fusion, you know?

The fact that fans of both teams are complaining means it is a good deal for all involved. A’s are having their best chance in 10 years and Cubs would not benefit from neither of the pitchers come 2016.

I’m actually glad the O’s didn’t trade for him. I cannot shake the feeling that it would have been a disaster, or at least less than a success. Of course, maybe he would have continued pitching well and led us to the World Series. You never know.

Talent-wise, the Cubs couldn’t do better than what the A’s gave up. Russell can be flipped for a pitcher at any point and just because they are shortstops today, doesn’t mean they can’t play other positions, and free agency also offers pitching. If I were a Cubs fan, I’d be doing cartwheels over this trade.

My god… I never realized how stupid Cubs fans are. THese comments are alarming. WHO GIVES A F**K ABOUT STARTING PITCHING THIS YEAR AND NEXT YEAR. THEY ARE TRYING TO BUILD FOR THE LONG HAUL AND ACQUIRE AS MANY BLUE CHIP PROSPECTS AS POSSIBLE. THEY NOW HAVE THE #1 FARM SYSTEM IN ALL OF BASEBALL. DO YOU WANT THEM TO HOLD ON TO SAMARDZIJA AND HAMMEL SO THEY CAN TRY TO FINISH .500 NEXT YEAR OR DO YOU WANT THEM TO BE AN ELITE TEAM FOR YEARS??????? MY GOD!!!!!!!! AND BAEZ OBVIOUSLY DOESN’T HAVE TO STAY AT SHORT STOP. AND IF THEY NEED TO THEY CAN TRADE SOME ONE. WHO CARES! IT WILL ALL WORK OUT. JUST GET GOOD PLAYERS AND WORRY ABOUT IT LATER! WOW!!!! TRUST IN THEO AND JUST SHUT UP

I don’t like this deal for the Cubs. It is said that pitchers do not usually reach their potential until they are 26-28 years old and in the league for some time. The Cubs gave up Samardzjia at the wrong time. And Hammal could be in that same class. I remember that the Cards did this years ago with a guy named Carlton who went on to win many games and some W-S games too for the Phils. This smells a like that to me. We will see. What I don’t understand is why give up an ACE just because he might cost you more money? He is a potential 20-25 game winner with a team that can score some runs. How much is that worth? None of the “potential” stars won a game for you yet.

To the Cubs, it’s not worth nearly as much as they got in return. Samardzija has already stated that he is going to FA and will sign with the highest bidder. He has rejected all offers from the Cubs and refused to engage in negotiations. After 2015, all they would get is a comp pick for him. They traded 50 starts during a time that they would not have been competitive for a LOT more than that….plus, if he gets hurt in the mean time, they get nothing for him.

This is a fantastic trade for the Cubs. They are looking scary-good starting 2016. They will have a lot of $$ and prospects to throw at any pitching problems.

this has absolutely nothing to do with the cubs not wanting to spend money. They are in it for the long haul. they are stacking up as much young talent as possible. And a franchise SS is worth more than any pitcher besides maybe Kershaw

I like this deal for the A’s. The Cubs should not keep stockpiling shortstops like this. They already have Starlin Castro who is young, Javier Baez who is a great prospect, and now Addison Russel? Unless they are looking to make a trade I just don’t get it.